


Ghost Interrupted

by Anonymous



Category: Gorilla Interrupted (2003), RedLetterMedia RPF
Genre: Ghost Tour, Halloween, Love Confessions, M/M, Miscommunication, Sharing a Bed, Surprise Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27051145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Last month, apropos of nothing, Sid had leaned over during one of Dex’s many long-winded rambling sessions and kissed him right on the mouth. Like, he just did it. Naturally, Dex wanted to address this (after a full five minutes of shock), but all Sid said was “I had to” and pretty much left it at that. The punk was absolutely steadfast on that explanation and was as tight lipped about it as an Aldebaran shellmouth in the days following.
Relationships: Sid/Dex
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23
Collections: Anonymous





	Ghost Interrupted

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Dex was struggling. He didn’t think he had to elaborate on that point. He was struggling, not only in general, but also in regards to Sid. 

Last month, apropos of nothing, Sid had leaned over during one of Dex’s many long-winded rambling sessions and kissed him right on the mouth. Like, he just did it. Naturally, Dex wanted to address this (after a full five minutes of shock), but all Sid said was “I had to” and pretty much left it at that. The punk was absolutely steadfast on that explanation and was as tight lipped about it as an Aldebaran shellmouth in the days following. 

Due to a noxious combination of personal insecurities and Sid’s complete lock-down on the topic, Dex simply made the decision that it was some kind of sick joke and just sent him a text after he left to never kiss anyone without permission. Then, he blocked the whole situation out of his memory. 

Well, technically he kept enough of it to spiral into increasingly more ridiculous (and embarrassing) daydreams when there was nothing else to do, but that was neither here nor there. 

He was determined not to let that whole… debacle... change anything, though—and apparently Sid was as well, considering he came back over two days later and acted like nothing happened. Just as well, September was speeding right along to make way for October, and with October comes Halloween. 

And Halloween was the greatest holiday known to mankind. 

Granted, the most that Dex had ever really been allowed to do for Halloween was hand out candy, and as he got older, his dad couldn’t even be fucked to do that much, but he still looked forward to it every year. Whenever Dex was hunkered down in the basement watching horror movies while other kids went trick-or-treating outside, Sid would break in and hang out with him.

Yeah... that was a major part of his determination. It’d really suck to spend his favorite holiday alone just because some asshole dared his best friend to kiss him... or something.

At the same time though, Dex was still playing with the idea of somehow getting a second shot at that kiss. Or, at the very least, getting Sid to admit why it happened in the first place. It was then, only a few days before the aforementioned holiday and right in the middle of an experiment that required all of his concentration, that he suddenly had an idea. He also almost set himself on fire. 

Once he put out a flaming chunk of his desk, he sat back and marveled a little bit at how much of a genius he was. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it sooner! Just a week or two ago, Sid let himself into the basement per usual—only, that day, he was holding a sheet of paper in his hand. Dex asked what it was, of course, and Sid gleefully mashed it against Dex's face. 

"Some stupid fuckin' ghost shit for Halloween." Sid snickered as Dex peeled the paper off of his face to actually look at it. "This kid was putting them up around town, said his mum ran a tour through 'the most haunted locations in Milwaukee'. Oooooo, scaaaryyyy!" 

"Weird..." Dex mumbled under his breath.

"Yeah. I told 'im the only scary part of Milwaukee was the _living_ people. Then I told 'im to fuck off, 'cause he was putting that shit on my house."

Then, Sid scoffed something about ‘spooky bullshit' and the topic was soon dropped. Dex still had that flyer, albeit hidden under the clutter that had accumulated on his tiny work desk. He dug it out from its flattened prison and held it out in front of him for another look. The flyer was kind of cute; looked to be written in crayon. It had him wondering if Sid had told a little seven year old to fuck off.

An excited smile found its way onto his face the longer he thought of his brilliant plan. Now, Dex wasn’t scared of ghosts in the slightest—in fact, the idea of a ghost tour was laughable at best and miserably boring at worst. But… if he got Sid to go with him and _pretended_ to be scared… maybe Dex could trigger some sort of primal, protective instinct in him? Normally, he’d need to run multiple tests before beginning an experiment, but Halloween was the very next day, so that was an unfortunate impossibility. What he _could_ do was indulge himself in a whimsical—albeit improbable—fantasy where it all went according to plan. 

Dex was a good five or so minutes into his daydream when his eardrums were assaulted with an untuned guitar at full volume. He jumped what felt like ten feet into the air as a dreadfully familiar laugh reached him after the ringing stopped. 

God. Why was he trying to kiss Sid again?

“When did you—?!” Dex whirled around in his chair, his face gone red with a mixture of many different emotions. Sid’s grin was sharky and mocking, and stupidly handsome. (That was why.)

“I got in while you were staring off into space.” He set his dumb guitar down on the amp—thankfully not the nuclear one, he wasn’t _that_ idiotic, surprisingly. “What were you even thinking about, you little weirdo?” 

Dex flushed up again at the reminder. It wasn’t even kind of fair that Sid could do that to him without even a shred of acknowledgment of what had started this whole thing in the first place. He looked away, back at his desk, and spotted the flyer again. Oh wait, that’s right!

Dex picked it up and shoved it towards Sid, not entirely unlike the latter had done to him before. It took a few seconds, but Sid finally recognized it and grabbed it from him. 

“I was thinking about this.” Dex half lied. “Do you want to go? We should go. Do it, I mean. The— the ghost tour.”

If he wasn’t busy thinking up various strategies for his plan (and the possible scenarios afterwards), he might’ve seen the shiver that ran up the punk’s spine. 

“The ghost shit?” Sid cleared his throat. “That’s— that’s dumb, who would actually go to that?” 

“I would!” He argued. “Come on, Sid, I never get to do anything for Halloween.”

Sid scoffed, shrugged, and scuffed the toe of his boot against the concrete floor. “What makes you think I’d come along anyway?”

“Because _you_ never do anything for Halloween either.” Dex crossed his arms. “But if you want to hide in my dad’s basement alone all night while I’m out looking at ghosts, be my guest.” 

“Maybe I will!” Sid mirrored Dex’s posture, although it looked a lot more intimidating on him. Dex deflated with a small frown, figuring that if even _that_ wouldn’t convince Sid, then nothing would. He’d resigned himself to another touch-starved night of rewatching the same five horror movies when Sid dropped his arms. “Okay, okay, I'll go! Jesus.” 

Huh. 

Dex’s eyebrows went up beneath his bangs. He had no idea what just happened, but he wasn’t complaining about it. “O— okay!” 

Step one: complete. 

On Halloween, his dad bid him goodnight with a slam of the basement door, and it was time for step two. Dex sneaked out through the back door and hopped the fence to the backyard, bouncing on his heels in the cold October air as he waited anxiously for Sid. He was afraid, just for a second there, that Sid really would find something else to do and would just leave him there, shivering outside of his house, alone and kiss-less. 

Well, at least one of those descriptors wasn’t going to come true, because that familiar head of garish, bright green hair appeared like a beacon from across the street. Sid jogged over to meet him and mussed up Dex’s hair with one of his obnoxiously large hands in greeting. 

“Alright,” Sid announced far too loudly and Dex shushed him as he attempted to fix his hair. “Let’s go look at some fuckin’ ghosts, I guess.”

Dex smiled, both relieved that step two had passed successfully and embarrassingly fond of Sid’s annoying personality. The tour was supposed to pass by the neighborhood, so they carried on down the street until a suspiciously ghost-tour-esque group rounded the corner. Dex slipped naturally into the back of the group, Sid following far less so, but they barely got acknowledgement. 

Step three: complete. 

The tour continued through the general vicinity, the guide speaking in an overly spooky voice about whoever’s ghostly essence was lurking in the area. The only fear that Dex was getting from this was from Sid’s presence beside him—otherwise it was mind-numbing. But, of course, his plan must go on. 

It was now or never. Dex took a deep breath and reached out to hold onto Sid's arm on the way to the next location... only to find it trembling. 

Dex slowly looked up at his friend, whose face had all but drained of color. "Sid... are you okay...?" He whispered. Sid jumped, tried to hide that he jumped, then shot a particularly weak glare down at him. "You're not... scared, are you?"

"Fuck off." He hissed through his teeth. "I'm not f-fuckin' scared, this whole thing is bullshit."

Privately, Dex agreed with that last point. With a minor case of disappointment in Dex's heart, he decided that his plan wouldn’t work if they were _both_ scared, so he just dropped his own charade. The guide carried on talking about the countless stories of murder-suicides, conveniently happening "right where that green-haired boy is standing", and Sid would look around as if their spirits were about to rise from the ground and drag him down with them. By the time they arrived at the second-to-last location, Sid was practically hiding behind Dex, holding onto the back of his lab coat with both shaking hands.

Ugh, how embarrassing… to think that Dex was _so_ sure this would work that he didn’t even think twice about it. All the variables he didn’t take into account, he didn’t take even a single note about his process. This experiment turned out to be a colossal failure that was definitely not getting into any scientific journals. 

Wait, what? No— that wasn’t the point! The point was that Dex had made a complete fool of himself! There was no way the plan would work in _any_ scenario, not even in one where Sid wasn’t apparently terrified of ghosts. 

Step four: miserable failure. Experiment complete. 

Dex was sulking a bit when the group circled around to make their way back to their starting place. Dex split off when they hit his neighborhood, Sid parading along behind him attached to his coat. He didn’t let go, even when Dex stopped in front of his house. He glanced at Sid, then back at his house. Then back at Sid. 

“Do you… want to come in?” He asked unsurely. 

Sid scowled, mostly to himself… then nodded. Alright… 

Dex led the way inside, having to briefly detach Sid to climb over the fence again, then slipped into the back door. Sid didn’t even seem to want to laugh at the over-the-top gore in Dex’s VHS tapes. 

“Uh…” Dex climbed into bed, not exactly expecting Sid to follow but still being a little disappointed when he spread a comforter down on the floor. “Goodnight, Sid.”

Sid mumbled in response, then said nothing more. 

Even from his spot on his rickety little bed, Dex could hear Sid shifting around restlessly on the floor. He sighed and leaned over the edge to get Sid’s attention. That, of course, startled him, but what else was he supposed to do?

“Sid, you _really_ don’t have to sleep on the floor. Besides, isn’t being able to see under the bed a little freaky?” 

Sid grumbled under his breath and got up from his pitiful makeshift bed. Surprisingly, he didn’t even argue that ‘he was fine’ or ‘he’s not a pussy’ when he squeezed himself into the small space between Dex and the wall. Sid was far broader than Dex, basically forcing him to choose between pressing himself against the punk’s side or falling off the bed. 

They laid in the pitch darkness silently for a while, the only sound being the gentle whirring of experimental technology from the other room. Finally, after an awkward few minutes of just listening to Sid's breathing, Dex's guilty conscience got the better of him and he turned his head slightly towards Sid.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were afraid of the paranormal?" He asked. "I wouldn't have asked you to come if I knew. And don't say you aren't, I was _there_." 

Sid, vehemently avoiding Dex's eye, mumbled "'Cause it's fuckin' stupid." Dex made to argue about how nobody's fear is 'stupid' when Sid barreled through. "You really wanted to go. I didn't want you to go alone. Whatever, it doesn't matter."

There he went again, being dismissive and avoidant about why he did the shit he did. It was here, in the dark of his dad’s basement, squashing himself against his childhood bully/friend on the same tiny bed, that Dex finally had the strength to confront him.

“So, uh…” Great, he started off with a voice crack. Dex cleared his throat. “Who, uh, gave you the… dare?”

Sid actually looked at him this time—although, strangely, he seemed confused. “Huh?”

“Seriously, Sid, you don’t— please, can we just put this to rest? Just tell me who dared you to kiss me and how much they gave you for it.” Dex unconsciously flexed his hand against Sid’s shirt. “We can… split it. Heh…” Well, _that_ was pathetic. 

Sid just continued to stare at him and Dex could practically hear the gears turning in his head (it was about time those things started moving). Finally, Sid guffawed. “What? The fuck? Is that seriously what your giant nerd brain came up with?”

Offended, and a little hurt, Dex propped himself up on his elbow to look down at Sid. “Well— I don’t know, it’s not like you gave me a lot to go off of! Maybe if you would try talking to me, my ‘giant nerd brain’ wouldn’t have _had_ to come up with anything in the first place!” 

The punk floundered for words, probably trying to come up with a new, exciting way to tell Dex to fuck off.

"It matters a lot. To me." Dex interrupted his thought process, his voice quiet. “Will you just tell me the truth?"

Sid deflated. 

“You were just being really fuckin’ cute, okay?” He muttered. “I _told_ you, I had to do it.” 

…huh…?

“You… what?”

“Well—!” Sid started, then apparently thought better of himself (for once). “You asked.”

Dex still couldn’t wrap his head around this new development. He leaned over Sid, trying to look him straight in the eyes even as Sid was avoiding it. 

“So… you… _wanted_ to? That’s…?” 

“Yes! Jesus.” 

Dex couldn’t even find it in himself to be offended at Sid’s prickly, defensive outburst. Sid kissed him… of his own accord. Because he wanted to. Because he was _cute._

Overwhelmed, he wheezed out, “Still should’ve asked,” before breaking out into nervous giggles. “You still could. Can. You can still kiss me, like, now. If I’m still cute.”

Sid finally looked him in the eyes, a little bewildered and a lot apprehensive. 

“I’m serious.” Dex clarified, slowly losing that earlier burst of confidence. That was way too much, wasn’t it? Goddammit. Bonus step fiv—

Sid reached up, secured a hand to the back of Dex’s head, and pulled him down for a do-over. 

Dex’s hand flew up to twist into Sid’s shirt as Sid’s slowly migrated down to the small of his back.

"Bet you haven't even kissed anyone before me." Sid grinned mockingly when he briefly separated them (much to Dex’s chagrin), the grip on Dex's back growing tighter just slightly. "Poor little nerd boy."

Dex thought back to that one time in fifth grade when he was dragged into a game of spin the bottle. The only girl that landed on him started laughing, realized that it wasn't a joke, and immediately washed her lips off in the kitchen sink after pecking him on the corner of his mouth.

"I have." He muttered defensively, swooning back down to negate any more discussion of the topic.

Dex had to come back to himself at some point before anything progressed further, because he wasn’t even kind of prepared for anything even slightly more than this, and “no, Sid, there’s no ‘scientific substitute’, just go to sleep, you asshole”.

Sid complained half-heartedly, but even he seemed to have grown tired from all the festivities. Dex settled back down onto his side, now feeling a lot more comfortable about wrapping his arm around Sid’s waist. He was out like a light, the whole month of stress finally having been lifted off his shoulders. 

The next morning, Dex woke up to the sound of heavy footsteps upstairs and a lot more free space on his bed. His mind was silent for a blissful millisecond before everything, past and present, came crashing back into it. In a blind panic (both literally and metaphorically, considering he'd neglected to put his glasses on yet), Dex squinted until he could comprehend his phone and rushed to check in with Sid, afraid that he'd been caught. Strangely, there was already a short conversation—timed at five in the morning, when he was definitely asleep. No longer on the brink of an anxiety attack upon seeing that Sid was still alive, Dex managed to reach over and put on his glasses.

The message from his own phone, written with what appeared to be no understanding of the English language, read "sad you had to leave so soon stud :'( sleep over again when my dad's not home <3". This was answered with an “ofc babe ;)” about thirty minutes later from Sid’s side. 

He was going to kill Sid with his bare hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Also I know that Dex did kiss Julie at the end of the movie and I love that for him but I really wanted to make that joke near the end so please forgive me. We all must make sacrifices for comedy.


End file.
